2009-11-09 16:21:17 -
For months now, the mobile community has been expressing heightened anticipation online for the HTC Mega. Finally, the Taiwan-based mobile phone maker HTC is launching the Mega handset as a second generation HTC Touch 2 smartphone, more than 2 years after releasing the first Touch.
It’s HTC’s first smartphone to run on Windows with the latest Windows Mobile 6.5 OS. With a more modest hardware set and a friendly price, the Touch 2 is positioned to cover the lower end of the market while its more expensive sibling, the HTC Touch Pro2, covers the other end.
Getting down to the Basics
Running on a Qualcomm MSM7227 CPU
clocked at 528 MHz, the entry level Touch 2 benefits from the multitasking capability of the new Windows Mobile platform and with the TouchFLO user interface sitting on top, you get a highly customizable homescreen with widgets that allow instant single-touch access to most of your favorite apps, multimedia files and social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter as well as messaging sites like Yahoo IM.
The Touch2 is just like any quad band GSM/GPRS/EDGE phone on the 2G network and is a 3G phone with HSDPA/HSUPA data connectivity for fast internet surfing. Its body size and styling harkens back to the earlier Touch handset sporting a non-gloss surface that attracts less fingerprints but weighing less at 110g.
You get an updated feature set with built-in GPS/A-GPS. There’s Bluetooth 2.1 with EDR for high speed wireless data transfers as well as A2DP support for wireless stereo headphones. You get WiFi 802.11b/g for surfing in hotspots with 54mbps broadband speeds. There’s a good enough internal memory of 512 MB ROM and 256 MN RAM but that can be expanded up to 16 GB using is microSD memory expansion slot. Stereo FM and 3.5mm headphone jacks round out the basics of the Touch2 handset.
Less than Stellar Hardware
You always get what you pay for. HTC goes to great length putting in the bells and whistles but less than stellar qualities to bring down the price, instead of taking them out altogether. That should make the lower end markets glad to have an all-around touchscreen smartphone with just watered down features.
The 2.8 inch LCD display looks nice but it only sports QVGA resolution that can look brilliant on a smaller screen, but looks less impressive on a larger screen which is what the Touch2 has. It uses resistive technology instead of the more hip but expensive capacitive touchscreen favored by upscale smartphones in the market.
Imaging gets a bare treatment as well with a fixed focus 3.2 megapixel camera without flash. You still get good photos especially in well-lit indoor shots, but daylight images can get a bit overexposed. The camera is certainly not its best feature unlike some budget models that do even better.
Availability
As a budget smartphone, the HTC Touch 2 does a commendable job at its price point. You can expect this to be offered free under an affordable monthly plan from major mobile networks once it hits the markets in time for the holidays.
www.moby1.co.uk/phones/HTC/Touch-2.html
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